Harefooted Halloween: The Exorcist III

What I Liked: Brad Dourif’s (Color of Night) performance is very good as the Gemini killer.  His monologues are totally psychotic and theatrically over the top with excellent phrasing and pacing.

George C. Scott (Hardcore) is pretty good too in the hero role.  This was getting on towards the end of his career (and life) and he shows that he’s still got that rough gruff boldness to make you sit up and pay attention.

Things develop quickly and the story moves at a fairly rapid pace.

What I Didn’t Like: Scenes feel rushed a lot of the time with jarring cuts right on the actor’s last syllable.  I would’ve liked a little more breathing room.

The story isn’t as developed as it could’ve been and things aren’t explained as well as they should’ve been.

The exorcism at the end is completely shoehorned in and has been rightly reprimanded since its release.  And it’s the Hollywood execs who wanted it.  You mean they thought there ought to be an exorcism in an Exorcist movie?  Sounds like I should agree with the suits on this one.  The problem is the film is based on William Peter Blatty’s book “Legion” which takes place in the same universe as “The Exorcist”, and deals with demon possession but is supposed to be kinda different at the same time.  It would all be fine if the execs didn’t demand they brand this an Exorcist picture.  So here we are with an innocent product that’s forced into sequel territory with a reshot ending that contains an exorcism (the book does not from what I understand).

Overall Impressions: This should’ve been a cool first sequel to the original because Blatty thought outside the box.  He didn’t continue Regan’s story nor did he simply rehash the same shit that happened in the first go around.  The plot deals with a serial killer demon that inhabits the body of Father Karras after his fatal tumble down the stairs.  This spirit then picks up where it left off with murdering folks in the same manner as when he was alive.  The cop from the first film investigates and of course he finds things entirely unbelievable.  Isn’t Karras dead?  Isn’t the Gemini killer dead?  Who’s the mental patient locked away in the disturbed wing of the hospital?  What’s going on?

The idea of a more psychological horror film isn’t anything new but it’s also something that’s not attempted too often so I found the premise refreshing.  It’s definitely the strongest aspect of the film.  The thing is it’s not executed great.  They gave Blatty the reigns and he does a serviceable job but it feels very bookish.  Scenes are generally too wordy and there are also some parts and characters that felt unnecessary.  This really needed to be handled by a set of seasoned filmmakers that could streamline the book better into a script and bring a grittier visual style to the fold.

It’s not bad though.  I enjoyed this much more than Exorcist II and didn’t find it nearly as silly as Exorcist I.